Jay Prakash Majumder is accused of taking Rs 7.2 lakh from examinees of teachers eligibility test (TET) for primary sections. According to a complaint by one Arup Roy in August, 2016, the BJP leader had promised to get the TET examinees jobs against the money.

West Bengal police arrested the state BJP vice-president and spokesperson Jay Prakash Majumder on Saturday evening in connection with a cheating case.

The BJP leader was called to Bidhannagar North Police station and arrested after over eight hours of interrogation. Police have slapped Majumder with sections 420, 506 and 406 of the IPC relating to cheating, criminal breach of trust and intimidation.

Majumder is accused of taking Rs 7.2 lakh from examinees of teachers eligibility test (TET) for primary sections. According to a complaint by one Arup Roy in August, 2016, the BJP leader had promised to get the TET examinees jobs against the money.

“Jay Prakash Majumdar met us during a hunger strike we had organised near the School Service Commission office demanding jobs. He said give me around Rs 8-10 lakh and I will help you to get the job. Later, we handed over Rs 7.20 lakh to him in two tranches,” Roy told IANS.

“But when we met him after three months he completely denied taking any money from us,” Roy said.

“After interrogation it was found that he was not co-operating and there were discrepancies in his statements. Therefore we have arrested him. He will be produced before the court tomorrow,” said a senior officer of Bidhannagar police station.

BJP’s Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh said, “The complaint was lodged by someone who was not a TET examinee. The complaint was lodged six months back. We believe that this is a conspiracy to malign the BJP in Bengal.”

“After Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Banerjee was arrested, this issue was picked up by police. That’s why we suspect that this is to malign us,” BJP state secretary said.

Majumder was called to the police station around 11.30am and was interrogated. He was ultimately he was arrested around 7.30pm.

Political circles in Bengal however felt that this is the first retaliatory step by the Trinamool Congress government targeting BJP leaders in Bengal. Recently CBI arrested Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal and later party chief whip in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandopadhyay in connection with Rose Valley chit fund scam.

Recently a case was also initiated at Alipore police station in Kolkata against BJP MP and union minister Babul Supriyo after complaints of outrage of modesty by a Trinamool Congress MLA. This was after alleged derogatory remarks by Supriyo at a debate in a new channel.